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The James B. Nutter Sr.
Family Information Commons at Ellis Library is designed
to be student-centered; to appeal to the social aspects
of learning; and to function as a central venue for meeting,
sharing and exploring. Marie Concannon photo
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New
Information Commons
Is a Hit With Students
By Kathryn Jones
Students at the University of Missouri-Columbia
now have a new space in Ellis
Library to access the most powerful print and online research
sources available, thanks to the new James B. Nutter Sr. Family
Information Commons. The renovated portion of the library’s
reference section, space uniquely designed to enhance academic
achievement, is a result of a $1 million gift from James B. Nutter
Sr., a prominent Kansas City businessman. In addition to the research
sources, the new design provides students with a vast array of
software tools and expert guidance necessary to propel them into
the information age of the 21st century.
Students entering the library from the west
side also will now enter through the Richard L. Wallace Atrium,
named in honor of Chancellor Emeritus Richard Wallace, who officially
retired in August.
“Libraries have traditionally
served as a source of information, whether in books and journals,
or in new digital media,” said Jim Cogswell, director of
the MU Libraries. “We find that today’s students want
more than information. They want spaces where they can work with
one another in small groups, to share information and ideas in
a secure, comfortable, and motivating learning environment.”
Chancellor Emeritus Richard
Wallace speaks at the dedication of the library’s
renovated atrium named in his honor. He dedicated more than
38 years of his life to the University. Marie Concannon
photo
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The 25,000 square feet of library space features
103 computers arranged in 75 workstations, 24 café seats
and four express stations. The space also features study areas
divided off by frosted glass-paneled walls bearing the names of
such influential authors as George Washington Carver, Joseph Pulitzer,
Samuel L. Clemens and Laura Ingalls Wilder. Lounge seats are clustered
beneath ornate wooden beams resembling tree branches. The facility
also provides high-speed Internet access, e-mail, wireless laptop
access, and laser printing and scanning services in one location.
Staff members from both MU Libraries and Information and Access
Technology Services are present to assist students in their pursuit
of knowledge.
“We have created within the library a learning environment
on par with classrooms, laboratories and lecture halls elsewhere
on campus,” Cogswell said. “This is a space where
collaborative learning takes place, where active minds share ideas
and explore new outlooks, and where information becomes knowledge.”
The facility is named after James B. Nutter
Sr., founder and former chief executive of James B. Nutter &
Co., one of the nation’s largest privately owned mortgage
banking firms. Nutter Sr. credits his father, Frank Clark Nutter,
for instilling in him the value of libraries. In turn, Nutter
Sr. donated an additional $250,000 for a book endowment to honor
his father. The endowment will provide the library with materials
from prominent American authors as well as Irish author James
Joyce.
The Information Commons
reconfigures existing library space to minimize the traditional
tall book stacks and aisles dedicated to print products
and to create, instead, broad sight lines with better lighting.
Marie Concannon photo
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The University also honored Chancellor Emeritus
Richard Wallace for more than 38 years of service to the University
and his continuous support of MU Libraries by renovating the west
entrance of Ellis Library in his name. The 1,600-square foot portion
of the library has experienced heavy traffic over the past year
with the opening of Bookmark Café.
“It is altogether fitting that a space
central to this campus should be dedicated to his honor and it’s
doubly fitting that this space, so central of the libraries, be
named for him, since Libraries have been such an abiding passion
throughout his career,” Chancellor Brady Deaton said.
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Last Update:
July 2, 2009
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